MLE, I had the HE400s for a brief time and my experience was nowhere near as positive as yours. I couldn't put my finger on it exactly, but it seemed like there were sections of the highs that were completely missing. Like the FR dropped off and then spiked back up.

I don't know, I read everywhere how people are loving the HE400s and I really wasn't that impressed. I am starting to think my pair was defective.

Also, did you have the revised HE400s or the ones before it? The originals had a smoother sound, and had a lot of treble roll off, which sounds like its what you had. They fixed it. Also the velour fixes more of that upper mid recession, as pointed out by the waterfall plots.

Treble's smooth and sparkly as can be for me. Anything more pronounced, especially in the lower treble, could easily be called bright. As it stand the he-400 is already a bit of bright. Are you referring to the 5khz upper midrange? The he-400s are a bit tamed down there-- the area where you typically hear the slap of drums.

A quick way to tell if you have older or newer he-400 is to take the pads off. Black magnetic structure is old, white is new.

I purchased them a few months ago but have since returned them because I thought they were faulty or at the very least their sound signature was way off. I suppose i could have had the older version, it's possible. I never did try the velour pads either.

All of this info helps though, I may just have to give the he400s another shot.

Treble's smooth and sparkly as can be for me. Anything more pronounced, especially in the lower treble, could easily be called bright. As it stand the he-400 is already a bit of bright. Are you referring to the 5khz upper midrange? The he-400s are a bit tamed down there-- the area where you typically hear the slap of drums.

A quick way to tell if you have older or newer he-400 is to take the pads off. Black magnetic structure is old, white is new.

Not for nothing but the rev1 had more of that slap of drums as you say like as in tom toms or snare just more impact even in the kicks..

I think when they fixed the driver problems from cutting in/out they also fixed that slap/snap/impact that the first version had and I miss. In the end HE-400 ver2 is still a stellar headset..

Hey MLE so what's the best gaming headeset out of the AD700 Q701 And HE-400 for positional audio cues only?? I mean I already have my opinion just curious what your thoughts are??Edited by I95North - 7/27/12 at 12:11pm

I always found the AD700 to have trouble distinguishing front and back when people are in close proximity, but I remember you said that was just a weakness of dolby headphone in general, and takes a while to get used to.

Id say the Q701 has everything you want on that front. The AD700 might have a slight advantage at the expense of a lot of SQ loss.
The HE400 is still a work in progress, but while its stellar, I think the positioning on the Q701 is better.
But were talking about great positioning, not missing anything vs greater positioning, and not being as full bodied.
The Q701 isn't as full bodied, so its easier to focus on sounds, while the HE400 is very full bodied, and everything is more integrated.

Lol oh ok I'd hope you say the AD700 is king just for positional cues like I see it also.. Now I did swindle my buddy out of his k701 for cheap but not quite the same as the q701 I guess.. I think for me the ad700 wins them all over hands down just for positional cues..

Funny thing though for me is that the ad700 is hella bright and makes my ears ring after Some time using them while gaming. To end the HE-400 are better at not making my ears ring but they lose alil in spot on audio cues to the AD700 but are not bad it all depends on gear in the end I think..

Man with hearing how good the ad700 sounds at positional cues, the a900x must be even better, put I just can't get past their cheap wing headband. If only Audio-Technica would fix the headband, I would probably snap the headphones up in an instant.

Man with hearing how good the ad700 sounds at positional cues, the a900x must be even better, put I just can't get past their cheap wing headband. If only Audio-Technica would fix the headband, I would probably snap the headphones up in an instant.